Quilting, Scrapbooking, Gardening and whatever else catches my fancy

Travel Diary – Day 3: Milan Cathedral (Duomo) and Lake Como

We’re still in Milan. We will be here a few days while we explore the surrounding vicinity. My sleep pattern is still out of whack. Of course, my sleep pattern was never very good even stateside but it’s definitely not normal even for me. I woke up at 2am Italy time and could not go back to sleep. So what does one do when they can’t sleep? They knit. And I finished my Day 2 blog post. And facetimed with the kids. Next thing I know it’s 5 and I work for a bit – check emails and forward work over to team members to take care of while I’m away. Then it’s 6 and I have to get ready for 7am breakfast with our friends. Thank goodness we got to breakfast that early as there was no line and we were able to have our pick of the tables. We ate to our heart’s content and then took the yellow line (M3) to the Milan Cathedral. We’re starting to become familiar with the public transit and it’s wonderful. The prices are very affordable and we’re able to get around easily.

At the Cathedral or Duomo we bought a 3 day pass and since there was no line, we decided to just go in. It was beautiful. There is just so many pieces of art everywhere I can’t post all the pics here.

The best thing I saw was this work of art. I think it is needlepointed and when we go back to the Museum and the shop I am going to look for better pictures of it and more information. I have no idea what it is called despite a brief search on Google. If you know, please pass that info on.

After wondering around inside we took the lyft to the rooftop and saw a glorious view of Milan. If you are scared of heights, this is not the place for you. I am scared of heights and it was awful and yet a great experience at the same time. The first part walking along the sides of the roof tops was fine. I didn’t look down and we took some marvelous pictures.

But then there were another set of steps leading to the very top of the roof. The first set of steps took you straight up and was very narrow and very steep. I made it up slowly my hand always touching the rail, the wall, anything that would make me feel better but at the top of that set of stairs I had to stop and regroup. I didn’t think I would go the next set of stairs. It was just too scary. I didn’t take pictures but I’ll have to check out the hubby’s phone to see if he has any that would show you what I mean. I stood there for a few minutes and after composing myself made it up the next set of stairs. This set was even narrower and with some people going down on the left and other people going up on the right it made it a difficult journey. It was enclosed and spiraled up. I latched onto the rail and took one step at a time. Once I was at the top, I took some fabulous pictures of the aerial view of Milan. But it was hot and it was very high. So after a bit of rest quickly went back down.

By this time, the place was filling up and it was getting hot. We decided it was time to head over to Lake Como. We walked to the Cardona train station. Technically it was .7 miles but as we had no idea where we were going we didn’t always go the direct route and it took forever. My legs were tired. We learned upon arriving at Cardona that we could have taken the Subway system, specifically the Red Line (M1) from the Duoma and take that to Cardona. From there we took a train an hour to Lake Como. It was basically the end of the line and I think was called Como de Lago Nord or something like that. We got out, had lunch, and then walked around a bit. Again, we took a lot of pictures.

This place was more shopping oriented and on the advice of my cousin-in-law we stopped at Grom for Gelato and Beretta’s for their famous Nuvola. Since I’m not much of a shopper it was just nice to walk around and take in the ambiance, small streets, and architecture. And when I was able to stop and rest a bit, knitted on this month’s socks.

And when we were tired, we just went back the way we came and about two hours later arrived at our hotel to rest. I ended up falling asleep and waking up at 10pm to thunderstorms. Hopefully those thunderstorms go away by the time the sun comes out. Tomorrow, we have a 3 hour walking tour scheduled ending with a trip to see the Last Supper. I’m excited about this and hopefully the rain goes away so I can enjoy it fully.

Related

No wonder your legs were tired. I walked almost the same amount of steps when we were in Boston last fall. Makes for a long day. You got to see some very beautiful sights. Love that you have your knitting along for those resting moments!